Gift cards, one of the most basic financial products in the US retail market, have become the backbone of a billion-dollar criminal economy that investigators say is moving American money into China.

Giant Eagle is giving customers who exchange their pennies double their money in gift cards as retailers seek to stock up on the coins.

No one would get in one exchange more than a $200 gift card, which would require turning in 10,000 pennies. Giant Eagle cashiers weighed the pennies in plastic containers at the cash register scales ...

A former U.S. postal clerk in Portland was sentenced Wednesday to four years of probation for tearing open hundreds of pieces of mail, mostly greeting cards, and stealing the gift cards and cash ...